Comparing & Contrasting Viewpoints on Immigration

US History

The New Colossus 1 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand4 A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command8 The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,12 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" -Emma Lazarus, 1883

Unguarded Gates

Wide open and unguarded stand our gates, 1 Named of the four winds, North, South, East and

West;Portals that lead to an enchanted land Of cities, forests, fields of living gold, 4

Vast prairies, lordly summits touched with snow,Majestic rivers sweeping proudly pastThe Arab's date-palm and the Norseman's pine—A realm wherein are fruits of every zone,

8 Airs of all climes, for lo! throughout the yearThe red rose blossoms somewhere--a rich land,A later Eden planted in the wilds,With not an inch of earth within its bound 12

But if a slave's foot press it sets him free.Here, it is written, Toil shall have its wage,And Honor honor, and the humblest manStand level with the highest in the law. 16

Of such a land have men in dungeons dreamed,And with the vision brightening in their eyes

Gone smiling to the fagot and the sword. 

Wide open and unguarded stand our gates, 20

And through them presses a wild motley throng Men from the Volga and the Tartar steppes,Featureless figures of the Hoang-Ho,Malayan, Scythian, Teuton, Kelt, and Slav, 24

Flying the Old World's poverty and scorn;These bringing with them unknown gods and rites,Those, tiger passions, here to stretch their claws.In street and alley what strange tongues are loud, 28

Accents of menace alien to our air,

Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew!O Liberty, white Goddess! is it wellTo leave the gates unguarded? On thy breast 32

Fold Sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fateLift the down-trodden, but with hand of steelStay those who to thy sacred portals comeTo waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care 36

Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be tornAnd trampled in the dust. For so of oldThe thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome,And where the temples of the Caesars stood 40

The lean wolf unmolested made her lair.

  -Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 1895